


Together

by HectateHufflepuff



Series: Solangelo one-shots [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Fluff, I wrote a haiku for this, M/M, OLDER will and nico, bit random, camp half blood life, chb, daily relationship, just cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 11:05:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10592712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HectateHufflepuff/pseuds/HectateHufflepuff
Summary: Will and Nico, and an ordinary day at Camp Half-Blood for the cutest couple in town. Will tries his best with his medic duties despite a certain Stygian Iron sword being thrown about, and Nico reflects his personal developments since he chose to permanently reside at CHB. Contains an Apollo haiku, which can only be a good thing. (Right..?)Will and Nico are older in this fic.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dangergays2019](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dangergays2019/gifts).



Nico sat by the lake, at peace after a long afternoon of helping train the younger campers to sword-fight. Thanks to Camp Half-Blood's magical boundaries, the blistering summer's heat didn't quite have such a sting to it- the strawberries were warm but not wilting; and Nico could wear a short-sleeved top without worrying about sunburn, his olive complexion finally developing properly again. Even after all those years of fading and darkness. You could take Nico di Angelo out of Italy, but you couldn't take the Italian out of Nico. His SPQR tattoo looked as natural as a birthmark, and thanks to Will's care, none of Nico's pale scars looked inflamed or sore anymore- even the werewolf claw marks. If Nico was a passport, his scars were now all just stamps on his pages, tokens and reminders of all the brave and courageous things he had done, and of all the exotic and awesome places he had been. (After all, how many demigods had gone to old Rome and Greece? Not many, it was safe to say, and even fewer came back.) Plus, maybe the bravest move yet, Nico was one of the first generations of Greek demigods who might actually have a chance at adulthood, and even... College. Scary stuff.

Both Nico and Will were 18, now- they had been dating for about 3 years, they were both barely months from graduating high school- or whatever Camp Half-Blood's educational equivalent was- and they'd both been accepted into New Rome's college. They were ready to get a dorm together, and start a life together, with Will not worrying about the infirmary and its inhabitants, and Nico being much closer to his sister Hazel and one of his oldest friends, Reyna. Nico couldn't wait. Even after the battle against Gaia, there had been all the trouble with Apollo. (Those weren’t easy days, when Nico’s boyfriend’s Dad was not only the same age as Nico, but the same age as his boyfriend. It had been an uncomfortable thought for both Nico and Will, but an added stress for Will and his siblings was that their immortal father was- for a time- mortal, and therefore killable. As if a demigod’s life needed to be any more awkward, or difficult to process.) But all that was sorted now- Nico’s probable-Father-in-law was a god again, much to Artemis’ frustration (everyone was sure she was relieved, deep, deep, deep down inside) and everyone had been treated to a haiku of awesomeness…

I can drink nectar  
I missed being Apollo  
Thank Hades for that

Recalling the delivery of the haiku, Nico shuddered, but was distracted by the sense someone was drawing closer. Or several someones. The Ares and Hermes cabin were heading down for a watersports and canoeing session. Nico smiled. Will and Kayla were with them. Naturally, Will was the first to see Nico, and he broke out into an even bigger smile than he was already wearing- Will was blinding, and Nico loved it. Loved him. Cecil jogged over to say hi, ruffle Nico’s hair and steal Nico’s sword, all in one swift blow. With a sigh- but a small laughing smirk, too- Nico just let him get on with it. Then suddenly Will was there. Flopping down with a loud crunch, Will leaned over and kissed Nico squarely on the lips as greeting. And even after 3 years, Nico’s stomach still flipped.

“Hey.” Kayla dropped a bag down onto the pebbles and sighed dramatically. Laughing, Will pulled out of his own bag a blanket big enough for all three of them to lie on, and after some reorganisation, Will was flaked out and lying on Nico’s stomach as Nico propped himself up with one arm, and Kayla sat cross-legged fiddling with a bow and quiver she had had swung over her shoulder.  
“So, what’s everyone doing? Ares cabin has never been this interesting before, have they?” Laughed Nico.  
Will groaned, and Kayla just winked at Nico. “I don’t know Nico, some Ares kids aren’t bad archers…”  
“Shut up about archers,” Will muttered. “Honestly, Nico, she’s collecting archery magazines now, and she’s got posters of everyone bar her own Dad around her bed!”  
Kayla just raised her eyebrow, and cast a rather critical glance at Will, before rolling her eyes at Nico. “And you’re leaving room for Jesus there, Will? Is Nico comfy enough?” Will just barked out a laugh, and everyone knew Kayla had won, hands down. (Nico wasn’t even sure what she had won, in all fairness, but she won it well.) “Aaaaaanyway,” she confided to Nico, “we’re here because after the last Ares/ Hermes activity slot, we had 20 campers in the infirmary at once. So!” She gestured at the two bag, sprawled on the ground. “We brought some supplies, bandages and ambrosia out ready, to hopefully get people healed before they injure themselves again.”

There was a moments silence, as the three watched Nico’s sword get thrown from canoe to canoe, as some sort of strange flag substitute in a game of ‘canoe capture the flag’.  
Will sighed. “I should’ve brought more bandages. I’m predicting 13 cut hands, when genius Ares cabin members try catching that sword blade first.” Kayla just hummed happily, before firing an arrow into Cecil’s canoe. “What was that for, exactly?”  
“I’m breaking up fights,” Kayla responded in defense. “That’s my duty for this session.”  
True to Kayla’s word, Cecil did stop fighting with a random Ares cabin member over how to best disarm an onager, and immediately got to repairing his boat with a jacket he stole off someone.  
“Hey!” Yelled another Ares member, on the far side of the lake. “That’s my jacket!”  
Kayla got ready to shoot again.

Nico decided to take the time to watch Will, who was drowsily tracing patterns on Nico’s thighs. With his spare hand, Nico gently finger-combed Will’s hair, twisting it into locks or springing out the waves in Will’s hair. Moments after Nico had first decided to die- right after planning where he would shadow-travel to kill Octavian- Nico had seen Will, and it was Will’s beautiful hair Nico had seen first. Blond, and both wave and curly, in the style of a shaggy surfer who acted low-maintenance but was high-key gorgeous. Will was beautiful, and Nico felt the attraction from that moment on. They had known each other previously, of course, but Nico had been enamored (or obsessed, Nico thought darkly) with Percy, and nobody else could have broken through Nico’s defenses, back then. Percy never tried back. Nobody did back then, until he met Hazel, and even then she usually wasn’t successful.

Before the local aquatic life began to wither and die, Nico thought happy thoughts. He was *so* at peace now, with Will calming him down, bringing out Nico’s brightest attributes and his personal quirks, and helping him overcome his old barriers and past troubles. It had been rockier, but like the sun against a glacier, Will had bonded with Nico, day after day, and slowly Nico had opened up. They were dating within months of Gaia being destroyed. They were ‘Camp official’ within weeks of the first date… The Aphrodite cabin had adored the new couple. It had been Drew, of all people, who led the mob that threw them into the lake after their first public kiss. (Nico had been warm by that campfire. Then suddenly he was turfed into the lake. Totally unfair. That wasn’t what he’d stayed at Camp for.) And Will? To Nico, he had gone from the camp medic, to a friend, to his best friend, to his partner; and every day, Will had gotten more and more perfect. That was still true, three years later- each new mundane fact Nico discovered about Will was like the gems Hazel could pull from nowhere, but less cursed. He treasured every fact, every minute detail of Will’s daily life. He loved the stories Will’s mom told over Irismessage, of baby Will and how she knew he was special, even then. Will would blush, Naomi would look blissful, and Nico’s heart could burst.  
His heart could burst right now- Nico was pretty sure Will was asleep. Truthfully, that triggered past memories, of teenagers misbehaving and Nico shadow-travelling Will into his dorm. Just for cuddling. Maybe a teeny-tiny bit of fondling, in the later years. Just a bit. Will- definitely asleep- muttered something under his breath, and Nico tried to cool himself down. It would help if Kayla was as bubbly as she usually was, but she was genuinely enjoying her role as the Fight-Breaker-Upper, it would seem. A shriek from a Hermes camper whose canoe was capsizing thanks to four arrows piercing its side woke Will from his nap.  
“Kayla!” Will yelled in disbelief. “Look at that guy!”  
“He was a troublemaker.” Kayla’s face was grave, but a tremor in her voice suggested she felt otherwise about the scenario. “He’s got good balance, though, keeping the rest of the canoe half-afloat like that.”

Will just sighed and looked like he was about to drop off again, when “Medic!” echoed across the lake. Pushing himself away and grabbing his bag in one swift move, Will jumped up to see where he was needed. (Nico was feeling less tension already, now his boyfriend wasn’t draped across his lap. Excellent.) Someone cried out in pain as another sinking canoe was pushed towards the beach edge where Will stood. “Injury?” He yelled.  
“Arrow wound!” Yelled a camper in a boat behind, who was guiding the injured camper’s canoe by hitting it with her oar. Each jarring push sent a small groan from the leading canoe. Sighing, Will took off his shirt, stuffed it in his bag which he then slung up on his shoulder, and began swimming out to the slow-moving, slow-sinking canoe. Nico’s internal tension ramped right back up again. Will wasn’t buff like the Hephaestus campers, and wasn’t as overtly toned as the Ares fighters, but he was strong beyond his appearances. He had a leanness about him, the sense that he was ready for every scenario at any moment, and he wouldn’t need to run for a battlefield map like an Athena camper might, or even be in the correct conditions, like Percy, Jason or Nico might have to be. Trapped in an underground maze or stranded up in Olympus, it wouldn’t matter to Will. He could heal through singing, and that was all he ever wanted to do.

In moments like this, watching Will expertly swim out to the injured camper, Nico knew Will would do anything to heal someone, too, and it made Nico so proud. Powerful enough to only need half a dozen strokes to reach his patient, Will pulled himself into the canoe with perfect balance; and- Nico could only assume- landed in the bottom of the boat, already rummaging through his bag looking for the necessary medical supplies. Nico was staring, probably wide-eyed. Will was by no means skinny, but he had only the thinnest layer of fat after being a year-rounder for almost a decade- his shoulder blades, his spine and the rivets along it, his lightly toned muscles that were only obvious when he moved around or you physically felt them… Watching Will, Nico could finally understand Will’s obsession with all things medical and the body; and how Will could be interested in how humans fit together like they did. When Nico saw Will, he could admit that it was all quite a miracle. (Will was Nico’s miracle, Nico thought smugly. And of course, Nico was forever Will’s.)

“You’re staring.” Kayla had stopped watching Will once he gave her a thumbs up, to indicate he didn’t need backup.  
Nico contemplated denying it, but gave up. “I guess I am.”  
Kayla laughed. “Lovestruck. The pair of you.”  
Softer this time, Nico responded, “Yeah. I guess we are.”  
Not even Will’s shrieking “evacuate the lake” whistle could wipe Nico’s smile away.

Nico had some one-on-one sword training with a younger Apollo cabin member that could only really use a bow but wanted to expand her fighting knowledge, because "bows run out of arrows but swords only stop working when you stop swinging it." "Accurate," Nico had said, "except let's work on the whole swinging technique you don't have." Will had organised the meeting, being the Councillor for Apollo's Cabin; and Nico was encouraged to find that the girl got better at sword work with every session that passed. After, both buzzing with the feeling of a useful exercise session and absolutely ravenous, they raced each other to the Dining Pavillon for a well-earned meal. Already there, surprisingly, was Will and Kayla, back from the infirmary. "I knew I never shot the kid!" Kayla declared, as Nico sat down next to Will. "My aim is far too good for accidental K.O.s!"  
Will turned to Nico. "Turns out someone stabbed the Hermes camper in an overzealous game of tig. Kayla did not, in fact, accidentally shoot anyone."  
"Excellent," Nico confirmed. “As excellent as this pizza for tea. None of your deep-pan, stuffed crust nonsense. Good old-fashioned Italian style pizza.”  
“You’re old fashioned,” mumbled Will. “Nothing wrong with a tasty Pepperoni pizza for a hard-working medic.” Nico rolled his eyes in response, but before Will had the chance to make a snappy retort, he had to lead the Apollo table to offer up a portion of their food.

Whilst in the queue, Nico continued on his reflective attitude for the day. Campers such as Kayla and Austin had been around long before Nico had been friends with Will. They might even remember Nico and Bianca arriving at Camp Half-Blood. It was quite the entrance. But there were newer Apollo campers who don’t remember a time before the Hades kid on the Apollo table, and some have only known Will and Nico whilst they have been in a relationship. More people knew Nico as the happier Nico he was now, and not the tormented Hades boy who could never bring himself to stay at camp for long. Sat back down at the Apollo table, Nico could see other campers who he’d talked to about various issues. As the head Medic, if Will met any campers stressed or depressed about life, demigod or otherwise, both Nico and Will were training themselves to try and be councillors to their peers. They had helped people with sibling deaths manage their grief; helped demigods feeling isolated manage to become more ingrained within Camp; and Nico had talked a 14 year old unclaimed camper out of leaving Camp Half-Blood, only for the camper to finally be claimed a few weeks after. Any campers who needed reassuring when their godly ancestry wasn’t what they had hoped for came to them. Plus, whilst being the first and only gay couple to ever be at Camp Half-Blood was stressful for Nico at first, Will had reassured him, and eventually other campers approached them, asking for advice or reassurance on sexuality. Will had recommended Nico reading up on more LGBT+ information to pass on to other campers, but really, it had just helped embolden Nico more. The 21st Century was finally feeling like home. Suddenly, as he sometimes did, Will linked arms with Nico and they both tried to finish their pizza whilst still keeping their arms interlocked. It was messy and made the rest of the Apollo table howl with laughter when Will dropped pizza cheese-down on himself- “My pizza’s got shirt-fluff on it!”- but honestly? Nico appreciated the contact with Will. It was basically snuggling whilst eating pizza, and Nico was down for that at any time.

Summoning rib bones for toasting marshmallows at camp was still surprisingly easy after 3 years. Nico wondered if you could ever clear all the skeletons out of Camp Half-Blood, and that is with most campers actually being cremated in a ceremony nowadays. Whose ribs could they be? Who knows. Nico didn’t want to know. Despite having a pick-me-up pizza for tea, the healing of all the different campers and especially the stabbed Hermes camper was beginning to take its toll on Will. His head rested on Nico’s shoulder and his slow, soft breathing tickled Nico’s neck. Singing along to the campfire songs softly, and only swaying softly to help Will sleep, Nico slipped his hand into Will’s, and they sat that way until campers mostly left and the roaring fire turned into a gentle flame. Will stirred, being particularly sensitive to the cold and to the approaching night.  
“I should still have time for a shower yet,” Will murmured, still drowsy.  
“Nice,” Nico laughed, as Will paused to yawn.  
“Ah, shut up,” Will smiled. “Then I’ll be in my cabin until lights out making sure everyone’s good. Then can you shadow-travel over and pick me up? I’ll watch a movie then head back to mine.”  
“Ooooh, I don’t know,” said Nico. “Shadow-travelling is bad for me. Especially at that distance. That 100 metre stretch might be too much, we might not make it back.”  
Will rapped him gently on the shoulder, but nodded in agreement. “I’ll risk the harpies then. And the cold. The numbing, numbing col-“  
“I’m joking! Sure, I’ll be there. Your shadow-travel-caution days are long gone.”  
“Thank the gods,” Will said softly, nuzzling into the crook of Nico’s neck. “Unicorn draught is such an effort to buy. And don’t even get me started on Lucozade.”  
Nico smiled and pulled Will closer. The fire sparked up, burning a warm, deep red. The campers left by the fire looked at the couple, and whistled in approval. Nico tapped his sword, but was relieved to find there was no dunking in the lake scheduled for today.

Later that night, Will fell asleep again in the middle of Back to the Future, his back pressed firmly against Nico’s stomach, and with Nico gently kissing his neck. Once Nico realised he was fast asleep, he shadow-travelled them both back, directly into Will’s bed- a trick that took years to achieve. As sometimes happened, Nico too fell asleep, curled up against Will. And as ever, no matter how many times this had happened before- a lot- the couple awoke to the giggling of the Apollo cabin and to the flash of a Polaroid camera, documenting their cuddles. Nico slept easy nowadays, knowing he had something like that to wake up to. He couldn’t imagine anything better.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again!!! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get more writing up. Uni hit me like a ton of bricks, and any spare time I had off (lit student here) I just didn't feel like reading or writing haha, because that's probably what I'd just been doing as part of my course. This was requested by Dangergays2019, and I'm sorry it came too late for you. If you're still reading fics on here but just not through an account (hi!), I hope you enjoy this. Sorry it's not very smutty- if people want, I might do a more smutty re-write? Let me know in comments please!  
> I do take requests btw! I only do them if I think I can do the request justice, but I'll let you know pretty quickly. Due to uni work I also can't guarantee it'll be completed quickly- I've had half of this written for a good 2 months, I just haven't had time to finish it and also I kept expanding on it haha.  
> I hope everyone enjoys this! Kudos and comments very much appreciated, they make me want to cry in a happy way. Much love! xoxo  
> ps it's totally my headcanon that Nico surely must have an SPQR tattoo? He was known at New Rome for quite a while, if he was able to get Hazel into New Rome. Plus Hazel had a tattoo and a year mark by the time we met her. So surely Nico had one???? I just need him to have one tbh. That's why I think he wore the aviator jacket so much. I bet he was sweltering in the Big House meetings, he just needed to cover that tattoo. (omg Nico with a tattoo <3) I never see fanart with him having one! but aaaaanyway now all I can think of is Nico with tattoos so imma hop offline  
> Again, comments and kudos much appreciated! much love! xoxo ^.^


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